Awesome Golden Gate Bridge

There may be seven wonders in the real world, but SL has its own one, the Golden Gate Bridge is just amazing. Spanning two sims, it’s an awe-inspiring sight and to catch its beauty I needed my settings on ‘ultra’ to view the whole scene. It’s so well done I never even noticed the sim crossing when I walked over! The fantastic build is by Lupo Ellison. He says in his profile that landscaping at both ends of the bridge are still under construction, but don’t delay, take a look at the finished bridge now, it’s well worth a teleport over to see it. I spent some time there watching the people arriving, it’s an SL masterpiece and Lupo Ellison has done a brilliant job.

Janey Bracken

Woodstock '69

It was the golden theme of the long warm summer nights of the late 60s, the glowing campfires and the heavy smell of incense filling the air, mingling with the tell-tale scent of cannabis. The hippies danced around the campfire, their psychedelic patterned clothes contrasting against their sun-kissed browned skins. The hypnotic music pulsating through the dancers was pure Hendrix and Rolling Stones, a complete blast from the well-known past!! If you were worried about a drug bust, your fears were soon diminished as you glimpsed the police officers standing off to one side, puffing on what looked like a couple of spliffs. Last night dj Janis Short was at Woodstock ’69 and I went over there with a group of friends and had a brilliant time! Love and Flower Power days, the Woodstock ’69 sim has it all, their info reads ‘SL Music Festival & Role-play – Everyday it’s a place of peace love and music.’ If you want a bit of nostalgia or just want to travel back in time to see what it was like in those hippie days you couldn’t go to a better place than Woodstock ’69, plus it's fun dressing up!

Janey Bracken

Shanghai Lily's Opening Night

Turn of the Century nightclub, Shanghai Lily's, opened its doors for the first time last night. Owner Celestine Neutron's wonderful new club, which is based on the 1900's, looks like it will be a sure fire hit as everyone had a great time. Kicking off the night was excellent singer Crooner Carlucci and a crooner he is, taking us through an assortment of Rat Pack oldies and sounding for all the world like Dean Martin, he gave a smooth and professional performance as he walked among the crowd and danced with some of the lucky ladies in the audience whilst continuing to sing. Following Crooner was the beautiful DJ Violet Ormenthal with her stream of golden tunes from long ago, just right for the ballroom setting. You can read about Celestine's ideas and her story behind the opening of the club at CNN report 'Turn of the Century Club Opens in SL'

Congratulations to Celestine on the grand opening of Shanghai Lily's!

Janey Bracken

Living at Poker Has a Lot to Offer!

Finding a good piece of land in SL can be a problem, especially if you want to be next to the sea! For most of us having an SL home is a must, a place to call our own that we can use if we want to change our clothes or have some quiet moments to ourselves. It’s also nice to have somewhere to bring friends back to without being interrupted by people passing by. However buying land can be a bit tricky and a little confusing, especially for newcomers.

I scouted around yesterday and found a few really nice plots, all with sea views. The sim is called Poker and I met up with Cliff Chesnokov who owns it. Cliff is an experienced estate owner and is there to help the tenants should they require it, which is really handy.

Cliff’s deal is a very good one, for his parcel of land measuring 1024 square meters he charges 438 Linden dollars a week for the tier payments, and the initial price to buy the land is an amazingly small sum of 219 Linden dollars! Cliff has two parcels up for sale measuring 1024 square meters. You get a 234 prims allowance with each parcel. (For new people, everyone who buys land in-world pays a tier fee each week, it’s a bit like rent and goes towards the upkeep of the sim where the land is. Prims are primitive objects that everything in SL is made of i.e. your house and furniture.)

Cliff’s other parcel of land on offer is to die for! It measures 4096 square meters and has an allowance of 937 prims (imagine what you could do with that!!). The buying price is 875 Linden dollars and the tier works out 1,750 Linden dollars a week, a snip for such a big piece of land, and to see the sunrise over the sea there is awesome! Cliff has a special first week offer on each parcel too, so don’t miss out! All parcels can used for business or residential.

I took a look with fellow writer Hibiscus Hastings and if I hadn’t already had purchased my place I would have definitely been interested. If you have any queries regarding the plots on Poker, please contact Cliff Chesnokov in-world.

Janey Bracken

Just A'Mazing, Trying To Get Out Of The Maze!

I'm totally useless at directions! I get my lefts and rights mixed up all the time and even go wrong using a Sat Nav! So maybe picking the Maze Area in Sculptie Paradise wasn't the best thing I could have chosen to explore, but I thought I'd give it a go. There are five levels you have to climb and I soon found that this maze was very clever indeed! Visually it is quite confusing with the flashy interior looking the same wherever you go on each level, like being inside the belly of a giant space ship, but then it happens!! the walls start moving, panels sliding shut or opening. Just as you decided to try one exit it suddenly closes off and another one further along opens! quite ingenious as well as frustrating! This makes it very interesting and sets it aside from ordinary mazes. I found myself up for the challenge of trying to crack it and get to the final level. There's only one way out on each floor and I found I kept going around in circles in the beginning. I can't tell you how good it felt to find each ramp taking me up a floor, and finally reaching the top was pure magic. I could see all the other people below me by using my mini map, they were wandering around the same way I had been doing trying to get out. One little tip though, I found it was very laggy and doors were slamming in my face before I got to them. I set my avatar to run instead of walk and this helped me a lot, so try that if you are having trouble! There was also treasure to be found near the exit, but I think I had taxed my brain enough and gave up on that one, good luck if you think you can find it! The Maze was a lot of fun and worth a visit, I think I did well to get out, I bet you will do better, give it a try!!

Janey Bracken

Great Performance by DarlingPresley Xue at Le Chiantelle's

It always amazes me, the amount of talent you find in SL, I go wandering around and sometimes I find such great places. I called in at a sim called Le Chiantelle's Live Music & Ballroom yesterday, just out of curiosity, and I was lucky enough to arrive and catch a live singer called DarlingPresley Xue. Darling doesn’t hide the fact that she is a big Elvis fan and does include some of his songs in her music, but she also covers so many more legendary artists.

I joined a group of very appreciative people listening to Darling and we danced and had a great time. Darling has a very sweet, but strong voice and she went through her own cover versions of songs by the Beatles, Celine Dion, Elvis, Madonna, Barba Streisand, the Carpenters, Debbie Harry and Michael Jackson, plus others. Her rendition of Joleen by Dolly Parton was awesome, this girl is good!!!!

The Le Chiantelle's Live Music and Ballroom is a lovely friendly sim and they made me feel very welcome, go along and give live music in SL your support!

Janey Bracken

Captiva Island

While looking in the search showcase the other day I found an intriguing description for a place called Captiva Island . It said “A moss giant guards the entrance to this underground cave where a troll waits to snatch up unsuspecting visitors. Find the secret door and be transported inside the mystic tree, a world full of mutant plants and mysterious creatures.” I have never been able to turn down an opportunity to see mutant plants and mysterious creatures so I tp’d over. Entering the cave I found a rocky interior with a water covered floor and the promised troll. I did spend a bit of time in a cage next to the troll, but was able to get out and continue searching for the mysterious door. A very kind avatar pointed it out to me and I went through. I found myself in a beautiful forest, full of huge, glowing plants and trees as well as some jewel like insects. I walked around, first stopping at a campfire where I sat and warmed my hands, then continuing along the paths which wound throughout the forest.

At one point I fell into some quicksand and thought I was done for, but fortunately I was able to extricate myself with some difficulty and continue my explorations. I came upon a second fire and had a little rest there, lying down on a log and munching on a glowfruit. From that position I spied what looked like a sheltered resting place on a leaf-hammock, so I climbed up to it and lay down for a little while (I was still tired from my experience in the quicksand), but after a couple of minutes I had the distinct feeling that I was being watched. Sneaking a look around I saw, to my horror, that a large lizard-like beast was staring at me intently. I thought it best to leave as quickly and quietly as possible, which I did.
Hurrying away from the creature I came upon another door and slipped through it, only to end up in a cavern full of boulders and spiders! Not liking spiders at all I retreated through the door and back into the forest where I took a path in the opposite direction from the lizard creature. I discovered yet another door. Opening it and crossing the threshold I plunged onto the deck of a ship being tossed about on a stormy sea. It was difficult finding my footing at first but I was able to master walking around on the deck after a bit of trial and error, and soon found myself standing guard and looking out across the ocean. Feeling even more daring I swung around on one of the ropes and then tried balancing on another. That was quite a feat and I felt after that that it was time for me to return to my peaceful home, where I could sit in front of my fireplace in safety and comfort.

Hibiscus Hastings